ASEC Mission: To make saving and retirement planning a priority for all Americans.
From the American Savings Education Council (ASEC):
- We realize this goal by educating the public about all aspects of financial security through our coalition of major public- and private-sector partners.
- For more about ASEC, download this brochure
July 30, 2010
FTC Issues Final Rule to Protect Consumers in Credit Card Debt
Amendments to Telemarketing Sales Rule Prohibiting Debt Relief Companies From Collecting Advance Fees Will Take Effect in October 2010
The FTC has just announced new amendments in the Telemarketing Sales Rule to protect consumers in credit card debt. Starting on October 27, 2010, for-profit companies that sell debt relief services over the telephone may no longer charge a fee before they settle or reduce a customer’s credit card or other unsecured debt. In addition, three other Telemarketing Sales Rule provisions to take effect on September 27, 2010, will: require debt relief companies to make specific disclosures to consumers; prohibit them from making misrepresentations; and extend the Telemarketing Sales Rule to cover calls consumers make to these firms in response to debt relief advertising.
For more information, please see http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/07/tsr.shtm
July 30, 2010
Employee Benefits in the United States -- March 2010
Employer provided retirement plans were a common employee benefit in the United States, available to 74 percent of all full-time workers in private industry in March 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. By contrast, 39 percent of part-time private industry workers had access to a retirement plan. These data are from the National Compensation Survey (NCS), which provides comprehensive measures of occupation earnings, compensation cost trends, and incidence and provisions of employee benefit plans. Access to medical care benefits and paid sick leave benefits were provided to 86 and 74 percent of full-time private industry workers, respectively. Only 24 percent of part-time workers had access to medical care and 26 percent to paid sick leave benefits. (See chart 1.) A worker with access to a medical or retirement plan is defined as having an employer-provided plan available for use, regardless of the workers’ decisions to enroll or participate in the plan.
July 27, 2010 Press Release, “Employee Benefits in the United States – March 2010”
You can access past years data from the National Compensation Survey home page. This is an extremely rich data-set providing data on the private-sector as well as state and local governments. Data is presented on access, participation, and take-up rates in various employee benefit programs. Data is also presented on a wide variety of business and personal demographics.
July 29, 2010
Financial Education for College Access and Success from U.S. Dept of Education
The U.S. Department of Education has announced a new grant competition that more than doubles their investment in financial literacy for FY 2010. Details below. Financial Education for College Access and Success
Overview Slide Set: These slides are intended for guidance only. Please refer to the official notice in the Federal Register. See link below.
Application deadline (firm): September 9, 2010
Eligible entities: State Education Agencies in States with personal finance standards.
Expected award: Single award to one State or a consortium of States for approximately $1.7 million (one-time award). Project period is four years.
Purpose: Development, implementation, and evaluation of high school-level personal finance instructional materials and related teacher training, to increase college access and success. The materials will be open education resources produced under an open license. Applicants must focus on high-need school districts. The evaluation design should be experimental or quasi-experimental, if possible.
Performance measures: student knowledge, FAFSA completion, college enrollment.
Link on Grants.gov: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do;jsessionid=WzP1MNwZwNfzM1vHhzS6nP3BylTSmg1FgTYjqxLCBQ3fWv2QTqkQ!-228465525?oppId=56154&mode=VIEW
Link to Federal Register Notice: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-18253.pdf
Contact for questions: laura.messenger@ed.gov
Deadline to submit intent to apply (optional): August 5, 2010 to laura.messenger@ed.gov.
Webinar for State agencies and partners to learn more: Thursday, August 5, 2 pm ET. RSVP to stephanie.anyaeche@ed.gov by COB Tuesday, Aug 3.
July 27, 2010
Majority of Americans Believe the U.S. Economy and Their Personal Financial Situations Have “Bottomed Out ”
Still, MetLife 2010 Study of the American Dream Finds Many Americans Feeling the Stress of Living Close to the Financial Edge
NEW YORK – July 26, 2010 – According to The 2010 MetLife Study of the American Dream, released today, a significant number of Americans believe the U.S. economy and their personal financial situations have “bottomed out.” One in four (26%) of Americans believe it will be worse this year than last – a significant decline from 44% who said the same in 2009. Forty-one percent believe the U.S. economy will stay the same and one-third (33%) of Americans believe it will be better this year than last year.
Press Release: The 2010 MetLife Study of the American Dream
Full Report: The 2010 MetLife Study of the American Dream: An Uphill Climb
July 23, 2010
Retirement Income Adequacy PIMCO DC Dialog Interview with Dr. Jack VanDerhei
An interview with EBRI Research Director, Dr. Jack VanDerhei, is featured in the July 2010 issue of PIMCO DC Dialog.
"In this PIMCO DC Dialogue, we talk with Jack VanDerhei, research director at the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), about worker retirement-income adequacy and confidence. He shares that only a small percentage of workers enjoyed the good-old days of defined benefit (DB) and that, going forward, he anticipates defined contribution (DC) plans likely will replace a higher percentage of final pay for more people than DB plans have to date. Jack notes a significant decline in workers’ confidence in their ability to retire successfully since the recent market crisis. While many younger workers regained lost ground in their account values, some longer-tenured employees have yet to recover their losses. Jack believes many of these longer-tenured workers are permanently shaken. In this environment, Jack underscores the need to increase contribution rates in DC plans, encouraging auto enrollment and more rapid contribution escalation – measures that can help workers achieve their retirement goals."
PIMCO DC Dialog “All Shook Up”
July 23, 2010
Jean Chatzky on the Today Show's Money 911 panel of experts
On July 21, 2010, Today Show, Jean Chatzky was on the Money 911 panel of experts. In this segment Jean gives a shout out to Choose to Save’s Ball Park E$timate.
The Money 911 experts panel tackled some of your tough money questions. After a job loss, what can you do with your fully-vested pension? How can you begin to build credit? What can you do when you’re struggling to make your mortgage payments? For the answer to these questions — and a few more — check out the clip below!
July 21: Money 911: Stafford Loans, Bankruptcy
July 16, 2010
FINRA Investor Alert: HYIPs-High Yield Investment Programs Are Hazardous to Your Investment Portfolio
HYIPs—High Yield Investment Programs Are Hazardous to Your Investment Portfolio
July 13, 2010
EBRI's New Retirement Readiness Rating
With Americans living longer in retirement, the 2010 EBRI Retirement Readiness Rating™ released today shows dramatically high percentages of Americans—even in the upper-income categories—are likely to run short of money after 10 or 20 years of retirement.
The new analysis by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) finds that almost two-thirds (64 percent) of Americans in the two lowest preretirement income levels will be running short after 10 years in retirement.
However, the EBRI study also finds that after 20 years of retirement, almost a third (29 percent) of those in the next-to-highest income level will run short of money, as will more than 1 in 10 (13 per-cent) of those in the highest-income level. Not surprisingly, those with the highest income are at the lowest risk of running short of money—but many in the highest income category still face significant risks of not being able to pay basic expenses and uninsured medical expenses for the remainder of their lives.
July 13, 2010 Press Release
July 2010 Issue Brief, “The EBRI Retirement Readiness Rating:™ Retirement Income Preparation and Future Prospects”
July 7, 2010
University of Maryland to receive ICI-Education Foundation grant for investor education programs
News Release from ICI-Education Foundation.
July 2, 2010
Demystifying Social Security: Academy for Interns ~ Free Seminar ~ July 22, 2010
On Thursday, July 22, 2010, the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) is hosting our yearly event, Demystifying Social Security: Academy for Interns.
July 2, 2010
Retirement Confidence on Campus: The 2010 Higher Education Retirement Confidence Survey
The college and university workforce (faculty, administrators and other staff) was surveyed by the TIAA-CREF Institute regarding individuals’ financial preparations for retirement and confidence in their retirement income prospects. Higher education has been impacted by the same economic forces over that past several years as the economy at large. This has resulted in many of the same types of organizational cost-cutting responses as experienced in other sectors of the economy, including structural reorganizations and staffing reductions. Higher education employees have shared similar experiences with workers in other sectors as balances in retirement accounts fell with the financial markets. At the same time, there are unique elements to working in higher education, at least as a faculty member, in particular, the absence of mandatory retirement in an environment where many have tenure.
Against this backdrop, this report examines the retirement planning, saving and investing behavior of higher education employees, including items such as the use of advice and plans for converting savings to income during retirement. The report also examines self-reported confidence in the higher education workforce across several dimensions of retirement preparations. The underlying survey was developed from the framework of the annual Retirement Confidence Survey sponsored by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and Mathew Greenwald & Associates (MGA), and responses from higher education are examined relative to responses of U.S. workers in the aggregate where questions overlap.
Full Report.
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